HuCove
by Critical Tortoise
Summary: As John-117 said to Lord Hood, he was "Finishing this fight." But what if that fight never happened? Or what if one mistake changed it forever?
1. Beginning This Fight

**Mr. Metroid Presents:**

**A story not about Metroid, but instead sort of about Halo**

**HuCove (HUman COVEnant)**

**Introduction:**

Key:

_Thoughts_

"Speech"

**(Translations)**

**(Scene change^)**

_A Timeline of Halo:_

2511, Military Calendar:

_John-117 is born on Elysium City_

August 17, 2517:

_John-117 is brought into the SPARTAN-II program._

September 24, 2517:

_Training begins for SPARTAN-II members_

February 11, 2525:

_The Human-Covenant War begins with the Battle of Harvest_

September 12, 2525:

_John-117 is promoted to Petty Officer Third Class_

2528:

_Misriah Armory begins manufacturing of MJOLNIR Mark V Powered Armor. This is the famous armor John-117 wears during the Battle of Instillation 04 (Alpha Halo)_

August 30, 2552:

_Battle of Reach. Covenant victory._

_UNSC _Pillar of Autumn _escapes from Reach with John-117 in cryostasis._

September 19, 2552:

_The _Pillar of Autumn _arrives at Installation 04._

_Battle of Instillation 04 begins._

_John-117 is chosen to administer the Cole Protocol and find Halo's Control Room._

September 22, 2552:

_Halo is destroyed by John-117._

_Or was it?_

Point of Divergence from original timeline- September 22, 2552:

_John-117 returns to Earth with the _Pillar of Autumn_. The Fleet of Particular Justice, led by Thel 'Vadamee, follows John-117, and establishes a foothold on Mars._

October 9, 2552:

_Avery Johnson assassinates the High Prophet of Mercy._

_Miranda Keyes is the first UNSC member to successfully capture a Covenant CCS-class battleship. The captured ship was the _Righteous Dominion_._

_After suffering heavy losses at the Battle of Mars, the Covenant makes Sesa 'Refumee the Arbiter._

October 14, 2552:

_The Treaty of Deimos forges a strong alliance between the Grunts and the UNSC. In retaliation, the Covenant captures John-117 and gruesomely executes him on Mars. They send back his helmet and a Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle (Better known simply as a Plasma Rifle) with an engraving on its grip that reads "this truth must not be silenced."_

November 11, 2552:

_In honor of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, the John-117 Memorial High School opens in the city of New Bahalo, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans._

March 21, 2553:

_In order to keep her out of harm's way, due to having top-secret information, the UNSC and ONI reposition Cortana, the former Smart AI of the _Pillar of Autumn_, as a teacher at John-117 Memorial High School as a way to keep her unnoticed. She teaches computer sciences and world history._

April 9, 2553:

_11__th__ grader Morgan Praxier begins his computer programming elective at John-117 Memorial High School. He is the main protagonist of Episode One of the HuCove trilogy, and will be met in chapter One._

May 3, 2553:

_After being captured and brainwashed by the Arbiter into being blindly obedient slaves to the Covenant, the entire human crew of the _Righteous Dominion_, including Commander Miranda Keyes, instigate the Battle of New Bahalo._

_Disgusted with this act, Thel 'Vadamee, all Sangheili Honor Gurads (And other Sangheili, about 90% of them, in fact), the Kig-Yar, and the Prophet of Truth join the UNSC and form the Human Convenant, or "HuCove" for short._

_The Covenant itself reorganizes into the Holy Empire of The Seven Rings._

_This is where Episode One of the HuCove trilogy begins._


	2. A Day at the Beach

**Chapter One:**

A Day at the Beach

***

There are 647 students enrolled at John-117 Memorial High School.

419 are Humans, the other 228 are Unggoy.

54 of these students are in the eleventh grade.

These 54 young men and women, both Human and Unggoy, are taught by 17 teachers.

And only one of those teachers actually interested Morgan Praxier.

Unlike all the other teachers, no one addressed her as "Miss," or "Madam," or "Mrs.," or anything like that. They didn't even call her by her last name; it was on a first name basis only. Most would probably think this disrespectful, but that was not the case: The teacher in question had no last name to be called by. She was like no other teacher in North America.

Her name was Cortana, and she was formerly the shipboard AI of the UNSC _Pillar of Autumn_.

But no one at the school knew that. Except for Morgan Praxier, and his knowledge just might save his ass.

***

Morgan was constantly wondering where she came from. He could never get that woman out of his head. No, not Layla, his girlfriend; he _knew_ where _she_ was from. His history teacher, who, surprisingly, was never physically present during class. While the UNSC had schools on earth where teachers taught remotely by hologram since 2407, (And it was now 2553) few teachers actually did so. But that wasn't what Morgan was thinking about. That was still normal. What wasn't was what the hologram looked like. Yes, she was a young woman, short hair, a good figure... But there were three things wrong with her appearance: One, she always seemed to be nude, which would mean wherever she really was, she was nude, which couldn't have been legal, at least as far as Morgan was concerned. Two, she was PURPLE. Yes, while most cheap holo-tanks were monochrome, those at schools never were, and even so, he had never heard of a PURPLE one. Third, she had symbols all over her body.

'Nuff said.

So, Morgan did what he always did. He went to his best friend.

***

After class was over, Morgan headed straight for his friend's house. Of course, he didn't tell his parents, because if they knew he was hanging out with an Unggoy, well, they would be pretty damn pissed.

Morgan quietly knocked on his friend's front door, to which a squeaky voice then yelled:

"GO AWAY! WE DON'T WANT ANY OF YOUR DAMN GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!"

Morgan groaned. "No, Nana, it's not a Girl Scout. It's just me, Morgan. You know, Yapbup's friend? From school?" And no, Nana wasn't actually Morgan's.. well, nana, but she was the closest thing to one he had, considering his real one got killed by a Jiralhanae patrol on Mars back in 2540, before he was even born, and his parents didn't actually give a shit. Plus, she couldn't have been.

"Oh! My, my, I am SO sorry dear! Come in, come in! No, wait... I'll come get the door for you, just hold on. YAPBUP! YOUR FRIEND FROM SCHOOL CAME FOR A PLAYDATE!!!! GET OUT OF BED!" squealed Nana, who was obviously an Unggoy. Morgan laughed when he heard her last sentence, but then contained himself once the door creaked open. Behind it was a short, cheerful-looking, semi-mammalian creature that was respectfully looking up at Morgan. She coughed, still getting used to breathing oxygen, even though her dual-purpose lungs could handle it, they were, as Morgan put it, "old as a San 'Shyuum." She then held open the door for the young human, who smiled at her and walked up to Yapbup's room.

***

Yapbup was sitting at his tech station, for lack of a better term, with the TV, Nintendo, air conditioner and humidifier all on. He was wearing worn-down, lived-in, torn tripp pants, modified for an Unggoy to wear (They were still trying to establish places that made clothing especially for Unggoy on Earth, all of them were on Balaho, their homeworld), a baseball cap, and a large shirt that said "I'M NOT FROM A GENERIC SCI-FI SHOOTER GAME. I CAN AND WILL KICK YOUR ASS." Once Morgan had walked in, Yapbup had yet to look up from the radioactive green command-line interface on his desktop, but somehow noticed Morgan come in.

"I'll never know how you do that, Yapbup," groaned Morgan.

Just then, Yapbup turned around and smiled. He then tossed Morgan a small disk, and then said, "You know, Morgan... you really need a day at the beach. Meet me there this weekend. And, also... ask Cortana for some extra credit work.

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**Well, finally, Chapter One is finished! In case you didn't notice, all chapters in HuCove will be named after levels and/or sections of levels from the Halo series, this one being "A Day at the Beach," from the Halo 2 level "Outskirts." And, just as a hint as to what will happen soon, the next chapter will be "The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe," from the Halo: Combat Evolved level "Two Betrayals."**

**Also, I will only refer to species by their original names, unless it's a character who doesn't know that name. So, no human names. And NO, THE FLOOD WILL NOT BE IN EPISODE ONE. EVAR. Maybe in Episode Two, though. Plus, I'm going to fudge the trith a little, such as the Unggoy having dual-purpose lungs. Not true in canon, but it is in HuCove, which is basically an alternate Halo 2. And yes, Yapbup is a hacker. Also, expect to see some fighting within the next few chapters.**

**And about my other fics:**

**The Child is on hiatus. No more questions. Once I am finished with HuCove, I will continue it.**

**Metroid Fission, I was originally writing on paper, and then lost the paper, so I couldn't transfer it into Word. But, alas, I just found the paper yesterday! OH YEAH! I JUST PWNED CLUTTER! BOOYAH!**

**And, I might be writing a fic based on either Ocarina of Time, OR a massive crossover featuring things from:**

**Zelda**

**Metroid**

**Halo**

**Star Wars**

**Darkstalkers**

**Mario**

**Doom**

**Terminator**

**And many others.**

**I need you guys to decide for me by putting your thoughts in the reviews. And remember, John's dead. And the UNSC no longer exists, and the Prophets now want to find the Forerunners, and no longer give a shit about the Great Journey. The Empire of the Seven Rings, DOES however.**

**PLZ R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


End file.
